Chivalric Romance: Difference between revisions

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Chivalric Romance is the original romance genre, back from the days when "romance" meant "work written in the vernacular." If you're looking for the sort of romance you might find in a Chivalric Romance, see Courtly Love; the association is what produced the current commonest meaning of romance.

Plentifully supplied with kings and queens, princesses, knights doing noble deeds on the behalf of the beautiful Damsel in Distress, wandering the lands in search of quests, fighting dragons, giants, wild men of the woods, bears, lions, or other knights (often in tourneys, with the prize being the hand of the princess).

Though they differ wildly in their realism, many of them include fantasical elements. The later ones start to turn into the genre Fantasy, in that they include tropes that were not believed in by the writer or audience -- not even as possibilities in a far-off land.

Ones about King Arthur and his knights (the Matter of Britain) are among the best known, but in medieval times, there were also those about Charlemagne (the Matter of France) and Alexander the Great (the Matter of Rome). The association could be rather loose, with tales from the Trojan War falling into the Matter of Rome, and despite the claim that these encompassed all romances, in fact there were "non-cyclical", independent romances, such as the Constance tales (all with the same basic plot as Geoffrey Chaucer used), and the tales of El Cid Campeador, the national hero of Spain.

They obviously are Older Than Print and found only in manuscripts. This has produced a great deal of variation in the texts. Recognizably the same tale appears with great changes in locations and even the names of the characters.

Don Quixote was written as a Deconstruction of the genre and is the sole memorial of quite a number of these once famous knights.

Many tales later collected as Fairy Tales or ballads are first found in romances, although we do not know how close they are to the Oral Tradition of their own times.

Tropes found in chivalric romances:

Arranged Marriage
Be Careful What You Wish For
Blue Blood
Cain and Abel
Changing of the Guard
Cool Horse
Cool Sword
Courtly Love
Damsel Errant
Due to The Dead: Arranging for a dead man's funeral can win you a companion White Knight.
Everything's Worse With Bears
The Fair Folk
Forbidden Fruit
I Gave My Word
Impoverished Patrician: Many a spend-thrift knight has spent all he owns.
I Will Wait for You
King Incognito
Knighting
Knight Errant
Knight in Shining Armor
Lady and Knight
The Lady's Favour
The Lost Woods
Malicious Slander
Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Innocent wives charged with adultery are fairly often charged with having borne children to a man other than their husband.
Mineral MacGuffin
Moses in The Bulrushes
The Mourning After
Our Ghosts Are Different
Our Werewolves Are Different
Parental Incest
The Promise
Rags to Royalty
Random Events Plot
Religion of Evil
Rightful King Returns
Royal Blood
Shapeshifting Lover
Standard Hero Reward
Wicked Stepmother
Wonder Child
You Have Waited Long Enough

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 [[Chivalric Romance]] is the original romance genre, back from the days when "romance" [[Having a Gay Old Time|meant]] "work written in the vernacular." If you're looking for the sort of romance you might find in a Chivalric Romance, see [[Courtly Love]]; the association is what produced the current commonest meaning of romance.
-Plentifully supplied with [[Royal Blood|kings and queens]], [[Everythings Better With Princesses|princesses]], [[Knight in Shining Armor|knights]] [[The Dulcinea Effect|doing noble deeds]] [[Courtly Love|on the behalf of]] the [[Beauty Equals Goodness|beautiful]] [[Damsel in Distress]], [[Knight Errant|wandering the lands in search of quests]], fighting [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragons]], [[Our Giants Are Bigger|giants]], [[Wild Man|wild men of the woods]], [[Everythings Worse With Bears|bears]], [[Panthera Awesome|lions]], or [[Black Knight|other knights]] (often in tourneys, with [[Standard Hero Reward|the prize being the hand of]] [[Everythings Better With Princesses|the princess]]).
+Plentifully supplied with [[Royal Blood|kings and queens]], [[Everything's Better With Princesses|princesses]], [[Knight in Shining Armor|knights]] [[The Dulcinea Effect|doing noble deeds]] [[Courtly Love|on the behalf of]] the [[Beauty Equals Goodness|beautiful]] [[Damsel in Distress]], [[Knight Errant|wandering the lands in search of quests]], fighting [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragons]], [[Our Giants Are Bigger|giants]], [[Wild Man|wild men of the woods]], [[Everything's Worse With Bears|bears]], [[Panthera Awesome|lions]], or [[Black Knight|other knights]] (often in tourneys, with [[Standard Hero Reward|the prize being the hand of]] [[Everything's Better With Princesses|the princess]]).
 Though they differ wildly in their realism, many of them include fantasical elements. The later ones start to turn into the genre [[Fantasy]], in that they include tropes that were not believed in by the writer or audience -- not even as possibilities in a far-off land.
@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 * [[Damsel Errant]]
 * [[Due to The Dead]]: Arranging for a dead man's funeral can win you a companion White Knight.
-* [[Everythings Worse With Bears]]
+* [[Everything's Worse With Bears]]
 * [[The Fair Folk]]
 * [[Forbidden Fruit]]
@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 * [[Knight in Shining Armor]]
 * [[Lady and Knight]]
-* [[The Ladys Favour]]
+* [[The Lady's Favour]]
 * [[The Lost Woods]]
 * [[Malicious Slander]]
-* [[Mamas Baby Papas Maybe]]: Innocent wives charged with adultery are fairly often charged with having borne children to a man other than their husband.
+* [[Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe]]: Innocent wives charged with adultery are fairly often charged with having borne children to a man other than their husband.
 * [[Mineral MacGuffin]]
-* [[Moses in The Bullrushes]]
+* [[Moses in The Bulrushes]]
 * [[The Mourning After]]
 * [[Our Ghosts Are Different]]